‘CROSSING THE LINE’ POLICE SUPPORT VOLUNTEERS: RISING NUMBERS AND MISSION CREEP POLICE SUPPORT VOLUNTEERS 2018 PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2018 1 Contents This report is divided into the following sections: 1. Introduction ....................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 2. Background ......................................................................................................................3 3. Executive Summary .......................................................................................................... 4 4. Who are Police Support Volunteers? .............................................................................. 6 5. New Strategies for Police Support Volunteers ................................................................. 7 6. New Roles and Powers for Police Support Volunteers .................................................... 8 7. Our Freedom of Information (FOI) Request ..................................................................... 9 8. Summary of Main Trends in UNISON’s Research ......................................................... 10 i. Police Support Volunteer Numbers by Force .............................................................. 11 ii. Police Support Volunteer Hours by Force ................................................................... 12 iii. Police Support Volunteer Demographic Breakdown by Force ................................... 14 iv. Police Support Volunteer Role Descriptions .............................................................. 14 v. Powers ........................................................................................................................ 17 vi. Volunteer Police Community Support Officers ........................................................... 18 9. Role of UNISON Branches in PSV Proposals .................................................................... 18 10.Police Support Volunteers: Conclusion and Issues for Public Debate ............................. 19 Appendix ................................................................................................................................ 20 Table A: Volunteer/Police Staff numbers 2014 – 2016 .......................................................... 21 Table B: Volunteers as % of staff total ................................................................................... 22 Table C: Home Office PSV Numbers Report Table D: Hours Worked By Volunteers .................................................................................. 23 Table E: Volunteer Demographic Data .................................................................................. 25 Section F: Hampshire Constabulary refusal notice ................................................................ 26 Section G: The Freedom of Information Request .................................................................. 26 Section H: Police Support Volunteer Roles in Police Forces ................................................. 28 2 1. Introduction Between 2014 and 2017 the number of police support volunteers (PSVs) working for police forces in England and Wales grew by 837. Over the same period the number of paid police staff jobs was cut by 1,566. These statistics, and the other findings in this report, bear out UNISON’s continuing concern that volunteers are being used to backfill some of the 20,000 police staff roles lost to government police cuts since 2010. The Institute for Public Safety, Crime and Justice in its March 2016 Report ‘2030 Vision: Specials and Police Support Volunteers at the Heart of Policing Reform’ suggests that volunteers should be ‘central to policing models’, and that ‘we need to burst the artificial glass ceiling of assumptions about what it is and isn’t possible or safe for volunteers to do’. This is made yet more eXplicit in their statement that ‘it is possible to think of a future where voluntary delivery models are the major part of policing delivery’, describing it as a future ‘in which volunteers significantly outnumber paid police roles... [and] are seen as a primary delivery mode for many aspects of policing’. UNISON finds these statements deeply concerning. Police forces should not be aiming to have the majority of their work done by individuals working for free. It would be very worrying if an emergency service like the police were aiming to rely increasingly on volunteers. Volunteers cannot be deployed in an emergency, because they are not employed under a contract of employment. And as UNISON has pointed out previously, the use of police support volunteers threatens the agreement between the Home Office, ACPO, the College of Policing and the trade unions that volunteers must not replace paid roles. With these concerns in mind, we have called this UNISON report ‘Crossing the Line - Police Support Volunteers: Rising Numbers and Mission Creep’. 2. Background In October 2014, UNISON published a report on police support volunteers (PSVs), based on information gathered through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests sent to police forces in England and Wales. This report was a comprehensive review of the use of police support volunteers, addressing the driving forces behind the increase in numbers, and problems with the emphasis on PSVs as a solution to the issues created by cuts to police funding. In our 2014 report we raised concerns that volunteers were being used as a replacement workforce to cover for the large scale redundancies in the police staff workforce resulting from government cuts. This 2018 report by UNISON brings our research on police support volunteers up to date. Much has changed since 2014. The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) issued its Citizens 3 in Policing (CiP) Strategy 2016-20191, a paper based on research conducted in 2016, and produced a corresponding website, recruitment campaign2, and policy suggestions. At the time of our 2014 publication, there was essentially no guidance available on the use of PSVs. Since then, the College of Policing has published its PSV Manual - a comprehensive set of guidelines for forces recruiting, deploying, and managing volunteers3 - and 2017 saw the Policing and Crime Act passed, which made it possible for chief constables to designate volunteers with significant police powers. There has also been a broader move towards recruiting PSVs to provide specialist skills, in addition to the more generic work that has previously been done by volunteers. In July 2017, UNISON sent out a new set of FOI enquiries on volunteers to police forces in England and Wales. Based on the responses that we received to these inquiries, reports published by the NPCC and IPSCJ (Institute for Public Safety Crime and Justice), and communication with UNISON police staff branches, we have produced this latest report. It is an assessment of current use of police support volunteers and the changes in PSV statistics since 2014. Our report is a counterpoint to government/employer-led publications on volunteering within the Police Service. Our research highlights changes in PSV and police staff numbers, the variation in PSV use and deployment between police forces, the distinct difference between volunteer policy and volunteers in practice, and a range of issues that merit greater public scrutiny. UNISON remains deeply concerned that the police service is developing an unsustainable and unrealistic vision of volunteering, which may eXpose the public to risk and which at the very least requires proper public debate. 3. Executive Summary This report seeks to update UNISON’s 2014 report on police support volunteers. It rehearses the background to the use of police volunteers, presents the significant changes which have taken place in the strategy on police volunteering and the roles and powers created for PSVs which have taken place over the last four years. The key findings of our latest research on police volunteering can be summarised as follows: 3.1 Home Office funding, via the Police Transformation Fund, has been given to the Institute for Public Safety Crime and Justice, to support the College of Policing Citizens in Policing Programme to develop policy and practice on police volunteering 1 Jones, Citizens in Policing Strategy 2016-2019, National Police Chiefs Council, 2016 2 https://www.citizensinpolicing.net/news/nationwide-campaign-launched-recruit-volunteers/ 3 http://www.college.police.uk/What-we-do/Support/Citizens/PSVs/Pages/Establishing-a-volunteer- programme.aspx 4 3.2 Police support volunteer (PSV) numbers have risen by 15% between 2014 and 2017. Responses to our FOI questionnaire revealed wide variety in the direction of change in PSV numbers between 2014 and 2017. 13 forces showed a net decrease in PSVs over this period, but there was an overall net increase across all forces surveyed of 857 PSVs. This represents a 15% increase in numbers since 2014 3.3 Over the same period, the number of police staff, in the forces which responded to the FOI inquiry, declined by 1,566 feeding the on-going concern that PSVs are being used to replace paid police staff roles 3.4 In Hampshire Constabulary, PSVs make up 35% of the combined paid police staff and PSV workforce. The neXt highest ratio of PSVs in the police staff workforce is 25% in Devon and Cornwall; 19% in Hertfordshire Constabulary and 16% in Thames Valley Police 3.5 Only one force has introduced Volunteer Police Community Support Officers (Lincolnshire) with Kent Police possibly hoping to follow 3.6 The severity of government